We hit some pretty rad milestones over the past month. As mentioned in our last blog, we received our federal permit earlier this year. Since that memorable day, we have also received our Massachusetts license as well as town approval for our pouring permit. On the surface it’s just a pile of paper, but these wonderful, government-stamped papers mean we are now fully licensed to operate a brewery and pour full-size, insanely fresh, flavor-bursting beers in our taproom! Put your hand up right now, because we’re giving you a virtual high five in 3, 2, 1…

Permits aside, this month we wanted to touch on a big reason why we’ve made it this far. We like to think we are smart, capable people, so we certainly realize we couldn’t have made it this far without a lot of help. We’ve been very fortunate to have great people around us helping every step of the way. However, something that continues to amaze us is the assistance we receive from people who are technically our “competitors.” We’ve made brewery friends near and far, but some of our biggest supporters have been breweries located right here in Massachusetts. Many of these breweries have no incentive or reason to help us (hell, we can’t even offer them our beer yet!) other than wanting to lend a helping hand. We find this completely awesome and mind-blowing all at the same time, and it’s a huge reason why we love being brewers.

Once Untold Brewing is open, our plan is to take this unparalleled generosity and pay it forward to the next brewery behind us. In doing so, we hope we can maintain this culture of collaboration and keep the incredible craft beer community exactly the way it is. It’s no mystery the craft beer marketplace is becoming more crowded and competitive. Competition for draft lines and shelf space grows every time a new brewery opens or an existing brewery expands. And the recent craft brewery acquisitions by Budweiser are a direct threat to all small, independent breweries across the country (side note: always support local, independent breweries). But we hope that by supporting the craft breweries that have supported us, we can preserve this fun and welcoming culture, overcome the questionable tactics employed by Big Beer, and keep this special community thriving.